From network terminations to recoupments, governmental investigations, and so more, pharmacies all around tend to face significant PBM risks. It occurs when issues arising during pharmacy audits are not effectively addressed. Prevention and preparation are key to delivering a positive audit result. Once you have analyzed the PBM risks and issues, you should go through the comprehensive pharmacy audit checklist to be assured of the best outcomes.

What is Pharmacy Audit?

A pharmacy audit can be regarded as a comprehensive and in-depth review of processes and operations for verifying the compliance of the pharmacy with the respective regulations. Pharmacy audits can be announced or unannounced. These can be conducted by either third-party insurance companies or government parties. These audits by a reliable pharmaceutical service provider are aimed at detecting wastes, frauds, and abuse of any kind.

Importance of Pharmacy Audits

There are several reasons for your independent pharmacy to hire services from professional quality auditing service providers. 

• Compliance Inspection: CMS Onsite audits, Catamaran audits, medicare accreditation, and state board inspections -all of these aspects are instances of government compliance inspections. These could be either a routine or might be conducted due to some issue.
• Pharmacy Benefit Manager Audit: An audit from the quality audits provider or PBM can be the result of the inability to deliver requested documents or not abiding by the terms of the respective pharmacy agreement. As per the leading pharmaceutical audit consultancy experts, the best way of safeguarding against PBM audits is by avoiding contract signing including any illegal auditing.

Preparing for Pharmacy Audit

Indeed, even the most reputed and established pharmacy might find itself in the need of in-depth pharmacy audit from time to time. To help you with the same, we have come up with a comprehensive pharmacy audit checklist. Here are some ways to prepare your pharmacy unit for the audit:

• Keeping a record of all communications with auditing entity
• Organizing all records and making sure that you are not missing out on any important document
• Preparing the existing staff such that they are aware of what to expect
• Making sure that the pharmacy is clean, the drug refrigerator, and other equipment remain in operation.

Some important points to take care of during the pharmacy audit process are:

• Asking questions about the goals and scope of the audit and recording the answers given for the records
• Protecting the records. You should not leave the auditor alone with the records. You should also aim at preparing copies of the requested documents. Ensure that you are keeping the originals and documenting records that you provide.
• Conducting an exiting meeting for determining any identified issues during the pharmacy audit and asking for the list of discrepancies in writing.

Follow-up of the Pharmacy Audit

• You should acknowledge any existing problems that might arise during the audit. 
• Aim for sending a rebuttal before the stipulated deadline along with copies of any supporting documents 
• After receiving the written report depicting the full-end findings of the audit, review the same carefully to ensure that it will match the notes that you had taken during the audit.

Conclusion

As you understand the pharmacy audit checklist properly, it helps you to conduct quality inspections effectively. Therefore, you can rest assured when in-depth pharmacy audits are performed for your pharmacy company.